It will only be a flying visit for Friedrich Merz, and yet the biggest test of his still short time in office: on Thursday morning (local time), the Chancellor will meet Donald Trump at the White House; around one and a half hours are planned for the bilateral talks and a joint lunch with POTUS. […]
Mr. Hofreiter, how do you interpret the signals following the recent phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin?It’s clear that Putin has once again managed to wrap Trump around his finger. That means the main responsibility now falls to the Europeans.The Europeans have threatened to increase sanctions on Russia. Is that even feasible without […]
The Commission wants to relieve SMEs of regulatory requirements. To this end, the authority wants to extend the exemptions that currently apply to SMEs with up to 250 employees to slightly larger companies – so-called mid-caps. This would include companies with up to 500 employees, an annual turnover of no more than EUR 100 million, […]
The new Federal Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has announced an active role for Germany in the EU. “As the Federal Government, we will focus our energy on taking Europe a big step forward,” he said in his first government statement in the Bundestag. Germany will offer its partners “reliability and predictability,” especially in foreign and security […]
The reform proposals for future EU financial planning will probably be less radical than feared by federal states, farmers and researchers. “By nature, I am not revolutionist,” said Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin in Berlin on Monday. The EU budget must be modernized and the number of the current 52 spending programs reduced. But not to […]
During the session weeks of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the College usually meets for lunch in the Members’ restaurant. The seating arrangement provides an insight into the pecking order around the President. Ursula von der Leyen’s head of cabinet, Björn Seibert, always sits at her table. The two Vice-Presidents Teresa Ribera (Competition) and Henna […]
The EU Commission is preparing for a protracted trade conflict with the USA. The outlook is moving “towards a situation in which tariffs remain in place,” said a high-ranking Commission official. In this longer-term perspective, it may be necessary to react to the unilateral change in trade relations by the United States and to establish […]
The European Parliament is calling for new own resources for the EU. This is a requirement of budgetary discipline, said Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Wednesday, as otherwise 20 percent of the EU budget in the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) will be used up to repay the bonds for the coronavirus recovery program. “We […]
The EU Commission is increasing the pressure in the tariff negotiations with the USA. In the next few days, the authority intends to propose to the member states to impose higher tariffs on around EUR 100 billion of US goods if the current talks fail. Corresponding information from Bloomberg was confirmed in EU circles. According […]